Critic Reviews

At the end of the day, this certainly is an enjoyable download, and value for money. Honestly though, I can't recommend it to people with PC's. The download is huge and it's not the best introduction to the series. Who does that leave?

As a single player experience, the commander's challenges are a good way to test your skills, pitting you against a variety of enemies and plunging you into battles with limited resources to see just how good a strategy player you are. Taking what is arguably the most compelling segment of the Uprising pack and releasing it on its own, players will have hours of play ahead of them as they work on and refine their strategy to dominate the three factions of the Red Alert Universe. However, they'll also have to deal with a less than perfect control scheme, a lack of unit information and visual issues to enjoy these strategy brainteasers.

If battling with (or against) attack dolphins and scantily clad lady snipers wasn’t already your thing, you’ll want to steer clear of Commander’s Challenge. However, if you've been a supporter of this silly-meets-strategy series in the past, then, well, we probably had you at "psychic Japanese school girls."

Creating structures and holding off pursuing enemies from all angles tends to grow monotonous, even with 50 different challenges. The grainier graphics than the PC and the corny plot doesn't give the title much value. Those who are fans of Command & Conquer might even be left still hungry for more while newbies will be confused all together.

Beyond control issues, it’s not always clear how to best use the units and resources at your disposal. The tutorial does a solid (and funny) job of introducing basic and advanced strategies, but moments of confusion are still bound to still crop up in the midst of battle. The lack of checkpoints or inability to save your progress within a mission can make for some frustrating trial and error in some of the tougher levels. Even with its problematic moments, Commander’s Challenge has hours of tough and intense gameplay to offer console owners with a hankering for more Red Alert 3 action.

I will be the first to say that an RTS game on a console is not the best platform for this genre. But the Command and Conquer series has been one of the best for the console thus far. Real time strategy games are some of my favorite type of games to play but sadly this version feels more like an add-on. Not that that’s all bad, but I was expecting more for the 800 MS points